John Renbourn

John Renbourn - The Hermit guitar tab

Many of the readers might remember that I tend to post tab only when I'm

procrastinating. It's amazing how easy it is to convince yourself that

you're not really procrastinating while you contribute something to the

net. Anyhow, I finished my undergrad last year and then travelled for a

while. Consequently I had nothing to procrastinate from! But fear not,

I'm now working on a graduate degree. So you can expect at least a

couple years more procrastination, and hopefully a few tabs.

Today I'm sorry to say I don't have full tablature. I have a list of

corrections to one of the available transcriptions of Renbourn's "The

Hermit". So for those of you with copies of Stefan Grossman's

_British Fingerpicking Guitar_ you should pull them out, grab a pencil,

and write all these fixes in. It's sort of a tab patch.

When I visited Guy Snape (hi Guy!) last fall, he played this song for

me. I've had it on CD for a while, but I didn't really take notice

of it until Guy played it. After that I just had to learn it. I

picked up the above book in the Netherlands. I travelled around

Europe, doing a distincly non-hermitish thing, learning to play

The Hermit. I thought it was appropriate in some weird sort of way.

When I finally returned home and listened to the CD I was dismayed

to discover that the music didn't match the recording. So I learned

the bits that differ, and I present them here along with the rest of

the patch.

The Hermit is an extremely challenging piece with the added benefit that

it is a beautiful piece of music. It's not just flashy style for the

sake of flash. If you're an intermediate (like me!) it's well worth

the effort to try this piece.

Dean

P.S. I know there's a book of just Renbourn music that includes this song.

Can someone with that book tell me if these changes are required for it

as well?

Tab Patch for "The Hermit" as transcribed in Stefan Grossman's book

"British Fingerstyle Guitar". The bars aren't numbered in the book,

so you'll have to number them yourself (I started with bar number 1 --

despite my computer science roots). The tuning is drop D.

Timings are below the tab. "1 e & a" is 16ths division, "2 &" is 8ths

division. A "g" indicates a grace note.

h = hammer on

p = pull off

/ = slide

. = harmonic

Bar 7: (typo) (I didn't attempt to transcribe John's distinctive trill here)

|--10h12p10p9 10h12p10p9-10p9------------|

|----------------------------10p9h10-----|

|------------------------------------11|-|

|-------------------------------------0|-|

|-------------------------------------0|-|

|-------------------------------------0v-|

Bar 9: (difference with recorded version)

|---------------------------------|

|-------0--------3----------------|

|-------------6-------------------|

|----0--------------0h4-----5--7--|

|---------------------------------|

|-5----------------------0--------|

1 e & a 2 & g 3 & 4 &

Bar 12: (difference)

|--------------------------|

|-^0-----2-/3-^3-----------|

|-|0----------|2-----------|

|-|0----------|4-----------|

|-----------------------0--|

|-----5-------|0-----------|

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Bar 16: (difference -- that makes it much easier to play)

|-----------------5--10/12-|

|--------3--5--7--5--7-/10-|

|-----------2--7-----------|

|-----4--------------------|

|--------------------------|

|--0-----------------------|

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Bar 18: (difference/typo) Alternate: (same notes -- easier harmonic)

|--------------------------|--------------------------|

|--------12.---------------|--------12.---7.----------|

|--5.----------------7.----|--5.----------------7.----|

|--------------9.----------|--------------------------|

|--------------------------|--------------------------|

|--------------------------|--------------------------|

1 & 2 & 1 & 2 &

[I suspect John uses the 9th fret harmonic.]

Bar 24: (typo) change the second hammer on to a slide

Bar 25: (typo) change the pull off to a slide

Bar 26: (typo) change both the hammer on and pull off to slides

bar 27: (typo) change the pull off to a slide

Bar 29: (typo)

|----------------------------------------|

|--------0--------3----------7-h8--10----|

|--------------6-------------------7-----|

|-----0--------------5/7-----7-h9--------|

|----------------------------------------|

|--5----------------------0--------------|

1 e & a 2 & g 3 & 4 e & a

Bar 30: (typo) change the pull off to a slide

Bar 35: (difference)

|--------------5--------3p-0-----------------|

|-----------------------------------3--------|

|--------4-h6-----6--6-----------------6-----|

|--------------------------------------------|

|--0-----------------------------0-----------|

|--------------------------------------------|

1 e & a 2 & 3 e & a 4 e & a

c.umanitoba.ca!newsflash.concordia.ca!uunet!newstf01.news.aol.com!newsbf02.news.a

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Subject: Re: TAB PATCH: "The Hermit" by John Renbourn

Date: 11 Feb 1995 19:45:39 -0500

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Sender: root@newsbf02.news.aol.com

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Reply-To: elanii@aol.com (ElanII)

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The Hermit is published in John Renbourn "Original Guitar Solos" which is

a Hal Leonard reissue of the original John Renbourn "Solo Guitar Pieces"

published by Chappell in the UK in 1979. Just reviewing the first few

measures which you give, the first is identical to the publication, the

second is different, etc. I will save your note and go over it later;

alternatively, I would be happy to send you a copy of the published

versions if you wish.

David Morse

Get this song at:  amazon.com sheetmusicplus.com

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